From Screen To Toner: Printing Your Presentation

When you print from PowerPoint, you can print a number of ways: one slide per page, two slides per page, or even 3, 4, 6 or 9 slides per page. You can also print slides with speaker notes and outlines.

To print one slide per page:

To print more than one slide per page, see the next sections on formatting and printing handouts.

1. Choose File > Print or press Ctrl+P to display the Print dialog box (Figure 19.6).
   
   
   
   Figure 19.6
   In the Print dialog box, you can choose to print all slides, the slide currently on the screen, or a specific range of slides.
   
   
2. Under Print Range, choose All to print the entire presentation.
   
   or
   
   Choose Current Slide to print just the slide that is currently displayed.
   
   or
   
   To print specific slides, click Slides and enter the range of slides you want to print. Use a hyphen to indicate a range of slides (such as 1-5), and a comma to indicate nonconsecutive slides (1-5, 7, 10).
   
   
3. In the Print What field, choose Slides.
   
   
4. At the bottom of the dialog box, click Scale to fit paper.
   
   
5. Choose Preview if you want to take a last look at the output (Figure 19.2). Click Print in the Preview window to return to the Print dialog box.
   6. Make sure that your paper or overhead transparencies are loaded in the printer and then click OK.

Tips

• Another way to specify a range of slides is to first select them in Slide Sorter view. Then, in the Print dialog box, choose Selection as the print range.
  
  
• The Print button on the Standard toolbar bypasses the Print dialog box-clicking it immediately prints whatever options you've specified in PowerPoint's Tools > Options on the Print tab. This is a presentation-specific setting, so be careful that it's not set to print one slide per page before you go printing your 75-slide presentation! This button also prints automatically to your default printer. Because you don't see the Print dialog box, you don't get to choose a printer.
  
  
• When you print a color presentation on a monochrome printer, PowerPoint automatically converts the colors to shades of gray.
  
  
• If you need to print the last slides first, which helps with collating the presentation on many inkjet printers, input the slide numbers backwards in the Slides box. For example, 10, 7, 5-1 will print slides 10, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 in that order.
  
  
• If you print a color presentation to a black and white printer and you want white backgrounds instead of dark ones, check Grayscale or Pure Black and White in the Print dialog.
  
  
• Most printers cannot print completely to the edge of a piece of paper. This is a limitation of the printer, not of PowerPoint.
  

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To format handout pages:

1. Choose View > Master > Handout Master or hold down Shift as you click the Slide Sorter View button.
   The Handout Master appears (Figure 19.7).
   
   
   
   Figure 19.7
   To format and lay out your handout pages, edit the Handout Master.
   
   
2. On the Handout Master View toolbar, choose the icon that represents the number of slides you want to appear on each handout page.
   
   
3. Make any of the following changes:
   
   
   • To add text that you want to appear on each page (such as the presentation title or page number), choose the View > Header and Footer command.
     
     
   • Add any desired background graphics.
     
     
4. When you are finished, click Close on the Handout Master View toolbar.

Tips

• The three-per-page layout includes lines on the right half of the page for the audience to take notes next to each slide.
  
  
• Any headers or footers you add do not appear on the Handout Master; you see them only on the printed handout page.
  
  
• If you want to use a word processor to fine-tune handouts or add text, you can choose File > Send To > Microsoft Word.
  
  
• The slide images cannot be resized or moved on the handout master. If this is necessary, use File > Send To > Microsoft Word.
  

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After you have formatted the Handout Master, you are ready to print your handouts. Figure 19.8 shows an example of a printed handout page.

Figure 19.8
This handout page has six slides.

To print handout pages:

1. Choose File > Print.
   The Print dialog box appears.
   
   
2. Choose a print range.
   Keep in mind that the number of slides you want printed and the number of pages that will be printed are probably two different things.
   
   
3. In the Print What list box, choose Handouts.
   
   
4. In the Slides Per Page field, change the number if desired.
   
   
5. If you've chosen four or more handouts per page, select Horizontal or Vertical.
   
   
6. Choose Preview to review your work. Click Print in the Preview window to return to the Print dialog box.
   
7. Click OK.

Tip

• PowerPoint automatically places borders around each slide on the printed handout. To eliminate borders, remove the checkmark from the Frame Slides box in the Print dialog box.

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